


The Right Name for Nothing: The Thieves’ Goddess and the Primordial Dark

by hinotorihime



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Deities, Fake Academic Essay, In-Universe Work, This is so fucking self-indulgent, fictional religion, i'm a fucking parody of myself, this is ross's fault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 16:15:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20549033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hinotorihime/pseuds/hinotorihime
Summary: An excerpt fromThe Gods of Quill: a linguistic exploration, lecture series by Dr E. Katori, delivered December 18xx at Oxbridge University.





	The Right Name for Nothing: The Thieves’ Goddess and the Primordial Dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roswyrm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roswyrm/gifts).

> Abstract: by examining the development of myths and other source texts, as well as potential etymologies for various names and epithets of the god known as Shadow, a strong case can be made for her origin as a cthonic goddess associated with the underworld, with psychopompic and oracular roles, in addition to her more well-known status as original creator of the other gods.

_From nothing things come, and the Nothing will take them back. _  
_The Nothing has as many names as she does knives, _  
_but no one ever seems to know the right one. _

_\--_ [ _The Making of the World _ ](https://roswyrm.tumblr.com/post/186292393486/hey-remember-when-i-went-on-a-rambly-tangent-abt) [1]

According to the most commonly accepted version of Quill’s creation myth, both the first gods and the first land arose originally from the primordial void. The entity who, depending on the tradition, either represents or embodies this void is called by many names, some merely descriptive, some more linguistically obscure. Examining these names and their associations enables us to glean information about her historical worship, the origins of her appearance in myth, and perhaps cobble her disparate aspects into a cohesive whole.

Shadow is, indeed, a shadowy figure: very little is known about her and in mainstream worship she is often overlooked despite her fundamental importance to the creation myth. Temples dedicated specifically to her are rare-- she is more likely to be depicted in a back corner of a general temple. These depictions generally show her with her face hidden, and those of her symbols used tend to be such things as playing cards, blades, sometimes lockpicks: all elements that reinforce the general conception of her as primarily a god of thieves, mercenaries, and other such unsavory elements of society.

Where does this rather narrow conception of her domain come from? We will attempt here to derive from it what are most likely her original functions, based on the oldest extant texts recounting variants of the creation myth. The texts all agree on the pre-creation prominence of a Void, or Nothingness, and that in some way the rest of the gods arose from this cosmic darkness. Many (though not all) also have this Dark as the entity responsible for separating land from sea, and ascribe to her a deep association with Grizzop the Forestmaker.

However, the Void is an atypical deity in many ways. Consider, for instance, this traditional conception of Darkness as progenitor: one might expect mother-goddess imagery given her role as bringer-forth of both the other gods and the world which we inhabit, but in practice this aspect of her is curiously absent in all but a few extremely isolated cults (these associations instead are mostly given to Azubuike, under whose patronage all forms of love fall). The Forestmaker is portrayed as a friend, even a sibling, but never as a child; similar is her relationship with a minor deity (likely an ascended folk hero) called by various names including ‘Brock’, ‘Rackett’ (an epithet also sometimes attached to Shadow herself), and ‘Mr Ceiling’[2]

We also see that the cult of Shadow is given prominence mainly in urban communities; in more rural areas the domain of darkness falls instead under the aegis of the Forestmaker. This general trend holds true: the Primordial Dark has been tamed and adopted and has become a peculiarly urban entity. This is one unifying thread to which we can eventually connect others-- she is the god above all of the city. She is not just a thieves’ god. She is also worshipped by engineers and mathematicians, while in slums shrines to her adorn the walls of otherwise ordinary folk.

As we examine this thread of her development, it will be instructive to refer to her with the name used for her by many poor Londoners and Parisians: ‘Sasha’. In my opinion, the most likely etymology for this name is that proposed by Oswell. By analogy with the formation of Moskovite hypocoristics, it can eventually be traced back to the root * _ l-ksa(n), _ meaning ‘defend, protect’. This name must have begun as a mere cult epithet: “She Who Protects”.

The concept of Shadow/Sasha as a guide and protector must be an ancient one, for if it was not her earliest association it is a very natural development: Darkness above all _ conceals-- _ predators sometimes, but also the prey. The cover of night; the safety of being unseen: these are the things Sasha represents. (She seems also to have traces of a psychopompic aspect, guiding those under her care _ through _ the dark, which I will argue later are key remnants of an older interpretation.) A more abstract development of this idea probably came next: Sasha is also the god of secrets. The darkness safeguards information until it is time to release it to the deserving. We can see this aspect of her coming to prominence in _ How Shadow Came Under The City _ . She guides the hero very literally from the shadows in uncovering hidden secrets, and then protects him by hiding him from those who would harm him. This role as oracle has been largely overlooked in modern religion, but is still prominent in the earlier myths[3]

This tension between hiding versus revealing information may be the rationale behind her most puzzling association: her patronage of mathematicians, engineers, mechanics, and inventors. Consider the following, fragments of a hymn to ‘Sasha Rackett’ praising her for gifting the world with ingenuity (my own translation):

> _ ...nimble-minded [and] nimble-fingered lady of the dark, _  
_ from whom nothing is hid, in whom all things hide [...] _  
_ the labyrinth that [guards?] thy dearest treasure(s) _  
_ [...] the copper sings to thee in its smooth turning... _

The labyrinth is not only a common symbol in Darkness-cults, but it is also often used in ancient poetic language to denote the mind and the complexities of thought. Sasha Rackett seems, then, to be associated particularly with cleverness, quick thinking, and creativity. She is credited as a source of revelation for those whose trade turns on innovation.[4] Crucially, revelation from Sasha Rackett is always thought of as being provided from a sort of cache of collected secrets, spoken of often in terms of buried treasure, and sometimes regarded as a balanced trade-- in contrast to the spark of heavenly inspiration provided, for example, by Hamid the Shining.

With this in the forefront of our mind, let us turn for a moment to the second part of this name, an epithet she shares with the demigod Brock. Textual evidence is inconclusive on the matter of whose name it was first, as the earliest references to it regard it as already well-established for both. However, we might be tempted to draw the inital conclusion that “Rackett” refers either to thievery or to engineering, the major domains that the two deities share.

While a fuller examination of Brock’s legend and an explanation of the origin of his title ‘Mr Ceiling’ can be found in my previously published commentaries, a brief recap here will be useful. The general shape of the story is that of a mortal thief who found himself under the special protection of the god Shadow. Under her guidance and protection, he became a skilled engineer and to him is credited the first rudimentary automaton. Eventually, he was murdered for his role in ferreting out the secrets of powerful gangs in London and Paris, and his patron, mourning that she had been unable to save him, imbued his soul with some of her power and charged him with the administration of the machines he had helped to build. The relations between machine and person now fall under his dominion, and he is said to be especially interested in preventing the use of necromantic magic in the building of automata and calculating machines.

Already we can see instructive parallels in this myth, but the most fascinating-- and, to my mind, the key to unlocking the true connection between these two deities-- is an element found in some earlier versions of the story. These versions claim that Brock’s killers attempted to bind his heart into a machine that would reside in the depths of the Parisian catacombs. One even leaves out any mention of gangs or criminals at all, instead saying:

> _ ....the powerful sought your power, rent you in pieces and hid you away in the tunnels; and yet you draw strength from the darkness, to guide the lost and broken._

This would seem very clearly to connect Brock Rackett to his patron not by thievery or artificing, but rather through a psychopompic role. We have already briefly discussed this as an aspect of Sasha’s early oracular nature, as shown in this very myth. The distinction can be very slim indeed; there is, as noted, a general sense that _ lost _ or _ hidden _ knowledge (as opposed to simply the unknown) comes from below the earth, doled out by Sasha explicitly for the purpose of guidance in unclear situations.We may also note that “Brock” has been examined by several linguists as a potential cognate for the modern word ‘badger’-- from a hypothetical root referring to several categories of burrowing animals. This etymology, now largely accepted among my colleagues, strengthens further the earth connection.

With this as our guide, we can now discard our earlier assumptions regarding the significance of the title ‘Rackett’, turning our attention instead to a relatively uncommon root * _ rəxat _ , reconstructed from a handful of surviving place-names to mean ‘mound, cairn’. It never seems to refer to natural hills, but rather to man-made burial sites.

Combined with the textual evidence, we can assert that this etymology connects “Rackett” in the end to the dark spaces under the city, the places where the dead end up. “Sasha Rackett” is the Protector Under The Mounds.

And now we return to the labyrinth, reinterpreted as a symbol of thought, but originally surely a symbolic representation of the catacombs which themselves represent the underworld-- darkness as keeper of secrets and souls. This explains also the lack of any fertility aspects even to her modern worship, for her connection to the earth is not to crop-soil but to cold, dry gravedirt.The myth of Mr Ceiling can be seen potentially as a description of a spirit-- perhaps a dead folk hero, perhaps a cthonic nature entity[5]\-- elevated to the status of a guide or guardian for sentient souls, thus entitling him to the epithet that originally belonged to the Guiding Dark.

The god we call Shadow was not only creator, and not always only the guardian of thieves or the poor, though we have reduced her to such. Fundamentally, Shadow began existence as an embodiment of the cycle of life and death itself. _ From Nothing things come, and the Nothing will take them back, _ says the story of creation. Our status in life does not matter-- whether we are clever or stealthy, rich or poor. From Darkness we all come, and eventually, to Darkness we will all return, our souls guided like copper wiring through the labyrinth beneath the earth.

* * *

1 As retold by Dr R. Oswell, Camford University.[^]

2 See my translation and commentary on the Londoner myth _ How Shadow Came Under The City _ . [^]

3 Some Darkness-cults may retain this function, but as these are universally mystery cults, exact data is unfortunately somewhat lacking. [^]

4 Note also the way this creative aspect of Shadow is spoken of in terms depicting her as an artificer. Some have argued, based on overlaps in iconography, that this aspect may be identified with a patron deity of alchemists whose worship in some locations has in fact supplanted hers, but I find the similarities superficial enough that this argument is unconvincing to me; they are more likely to be the result of later conflation than a common origin. [^]

5 On the possibility of a conflation between the two, as well as further exploration of his role as a psychopomp and how it connects to automation, see my later lecture, “Missing People: Mechanization and Community Bonds”. [^]

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Oh, It's Getting Mythical, Now](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25644520) by [roswyrm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roswyrm/pseuds/roswyrm)


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